The present invention relates generally to manual metal brakes. More particularly, this invention pertains to reproducing bend patterns using a manual metal brake.
Most houses having aluminum or galvanized steel sheet metal fascia that is fabricated on site using a manual metal brake. An operator cuts a length of sheet metal from a roll (e.g., 8 feet to be bent by an 8 foot manual brake). The operator then sets a first end of a first edge of the cut sheet at a first depth in the brake. The operator then walks 8 feet to the second end of the first edge of the cut sheet and sets the second end of the first edge of the cut sheet at the first depth in the brake. Typically, the operator must return to the first and second ends another time or two as adjusting one end affects the insertion depth at the other end. When the operator is satisfied, he makes the first bend. The operator then flips the cut sheet end over end and/or front to back and begins aligning the cut sheet at a second insertion depth within the brake to make a second bend. For many types of fascia such as gable metal, four different bends can be required to make the fascia profile, such that this process must be repeated four times. This makes one 8 foot section of fascia.
The operator must then begin again by cutting another 8 foot section from the roll of sheet metal. The operator repeats this process until enough 8 foot sections are made to trim the house fascia. Walking back and forth to set both the first end and the second end at the proper insertion depth is time consuming and tedious. Further, any error means that the entire sheet is wasted, and the process must be restarted on another sheet. Any inaccuracy in measurements results in a poor fit between adjacent sections of fascia.
Steps similar to those used to make gable metal fascia can be used to fabricate other siding sections such as gutter metal, window undersills, window casing, j channel, corner posts, soffits, and rake edges. Such processes can be immensely time consuming and produce high labor costs.
What is needed, then, are improvements to sheet metal brakes.